Anyone who might have read any of my recent
articles here detailing my experiences with creating a low-cost,
computer-based audio system has probably picked up on my new mantra,
which, distilled into its most basic form is, essentially: Just enjoy
the music! And that's basically what I've been doing—not fretting
over technical details, not imagining how great things could be if only—I've really, sincerely, been spending a whole lot of time listening to
a whole lotta music, and seriously enjoying my system's synergies and
surprisingly good performance level. I'm talking about delving into
really deep cuts. A lot of stuff that probably hasn't seen the light of
day in my system in a really, really long time. It's hard to believe
that 18 short months ago, I was listening to the latest 45 rpm releases
on the ORG label, and waxing poetically about how it just didn't get any
better than this. Those 45 rpm LPs are a spectacular analogue
achievement; the Ella Fitzgerald discs in particular offer the kind of
realism one rarely encounters in this obsession, but they come at a very
high price indeed. Fast forward to now, where I've been waxing
rhapsodically for months on end about the latest CD I just acquired for
a buck or two. It seems almost too surreal to be true that the two
experiences even feign comparison.

So when I was contacted about taking a listen to a new budget DAC
from CEntrance, I was intrigued... especially at the under-$500 price point
where the competition is really beginning to stack up. The name CEntrance did ring a bell. I'd skimmed through a recent
Stereophile review of their DACmini CX, but didn't really pay that close attention
to it, as it seemed to me to be marketed mostly at Mac owners. A little
investigative work turned up a couple of interesting tidbits: CEntrance—whose main market presence has been in the pro-audio gear arena—has
been writing code for years for DAC manufacturers as diverse as
Benchmark, Bel Canto, Lavry, Mackie, PS Audio and Korg, just to name a
few. And the DACmini CX, which retails for less than $800, was just
recently given a "Class A" rating on Stereophile's 2012 Recommended
Components list. Pretty amazing considering most of the competition in
that category have SRPs of $10,000 and up! The original DACport was also
included in the Stereophile list with a "Class C" rating, but that unit
seemed to be marketed more towards headphone users, and the accompanying
review from John Atkinson was mostly directed at its merits as a
headphone amplifier. The DACport LX, while maintaining the original's
1/4 inch phone jack connection, is targeted at computer audio users, and
is easily hooked up with any number of 1/4 inch-to-stereo adapters. CEntrance's
also sent along the premium Reserve Series Interconnect cable
to facilitate the review process.

It's NOT an Upgrade!

OK, so I'm on this whole enjoy the music
kick, of which one of the heavy subtexts is strict avoidance of that
most dreaded of audiophile afflictions, audiophilus upgradeitus. It
requires some seriously staunch discipline for the average audiophile to
maintain a consistent level of appreciation for their current system;
it's kind of like a 12-step maintenance program, where you constantly
avoid entering most audio salons. Partly out of fear of the unknown, but
mainly out fear of succumbing to another particularly nasty bug, rapidus
creditcarditus, which impairs your ability to communicate effectively
the thousand bucks worth of purchases from Dollar Bill's Easy Audio that
mysteriously appeared on your latest Visa statement, and you have no
recollection (at least, you swear so to your wife!) of how that could
have happened, and even worse, you're so anxiety stricken that the best
course of action is just to lay low and continue making those incredibly
low monthly payments! Hopefully, if you ever reach the twelfth step,
you'll have gained the confidence to enter one of those high-end
boutiques, turn up your nose and walk out, all the while ultimately still
self-convinced of the superiority of your own rig.

As I was just about to say, when the
CEntrance DACport LX showed up, I quickly realized with the low, low
$299 price tag of this little wonder—hey, it's not an upgrade! It's
cheaper than my current budget DAC—it might be the least expensive
audiophile-quality DAC you'll ever buy. And while it's diminutive size
might proffer comments from some about its obvious "budget" lineage,
don't allow those already-anticipated size comments (mine's bigger than
yours!) to weaken your resolve. The LX offers a surprising amount of
heft for such a small package. And while the ultra-swanky (and very
nicely constructed) Reserve Series cable ($75) was sent along as a
convenience feature, a pretty decent 1/4 inch to stereo adapter can be
had from just about any Rat Shack location or music store for a very few
bucks—that way you can easily roll your own cable choice if so
desired. But in this already low price range, I'd seriously consider
springing for the Reserve Series cable—you're gonna be hard pressed to
find a more elegant or well-made adapter with the fit and finish this
gem brings to the table. A generously-proportioned, well-constructed USB
cable is also included for connection to your PC, Mac or Linux device,
depending on whatever your particular brand of poison happens to be.

Some Interesting Circuit Choices

Michael Goodman is the man behind CEntarnce
and some refer to him as a "mad genius"! He's definitely made some interesting choices
in his implementation of the digital-to-analog conversion process.
Rather than use a mediocre stock USB processor that probably combines
the DAC and USB controller on the same chip, they had their own custom
chipsets fabricated, separating the USB transfer and DAC functions into
discrete circuits for optimal sound quality. The USB chip is centered
around a proprietary code they call AdaptiWaveTM, which makes the chip
USB class-compliant at 24/96 resolution. That translates into the device
not needing any custom drivers, and is universally recognized by
Windows, Mac or Linux. CEntrance strongly touts their expertise in
circuit miniaturization, and one look inside the case all but confirms
that claim—there's a boatload of electronics crammed onto two small
circuit boards!

But Michael Goodman's most bold decision was
to eschew the increasingly popular Asynchronous USB approach—hey, with
all the big-name manufacturers he's writing digital code for, it's hard
to argue with his results. The DACport uses a circuit that CEntrance
calls JitterGuardTM, a dual-stage clock management system that employs
buffering to extend a virtually jitter-free signal to the DAC at the
conversion point (in the LX, jitter is typically 1ps!). While it is an
adaptive transfer protocol, the important thing is to eliminate the
jitter, and CEntrance claims the lack of jitter in the LX offers much
more natural musical response, with superb definition, increased
resolution and an enhanced soundstage presentation. In PC applications,
the DACport LX automatically disables the Windows volume slider, which
effectively prevents Windows from truncating the bitstream, guaranteeing
bit-perfect reproduction—a really nice touch that easily minimizes the
user effort usually required to get bit-perfect file streaming. In fact,
no drivers are required—the unit is truly plug'n play. And while the
DACport can handle all input signals up to 24/96, it also operates in
pure, direct-coupled Class A—there are no capacitors in the signal
path—pretty impressive for such a low-cost design. Hey, it's also made
in the USA—even better!

Hooking up the DACport LX is about as simple
as it gets – USB into computer, Reserve Series interconnect (or your
chosen adapter) into the preamp, then choosing the LX as the output
device on both the computer and your music player (J River Media Center
– yeah, I know—more to come on this experiment-in-progress soon), and
then sending some noise into the device for a day or so to let it burn
in a bit. I muted the preamp and turned on the Stanley Cup playoffs for
the next four-to-five hours, and decided to then check the LX setup just
to confirm that all was well. Just picking up the DACport was a real
eye-opener—man, this little baby gets really, really warm, even hotter
than my Emotiva XPA-2 amp. Those circuits are definitely cooking in
there, what the heck—let's take a listen!

Wow!

Yeah, yeah, here's where you insert all the
typical, "Oh My God!" reviewer clichés—seriously, people, the impact
of adding the DACport LX to the playback chain was anything but subtle.
What was intended as a brief listen to a few pieces just to get my
bearings on where the LX might be taking me tuned into an all-nighter. It was close to 5 am when I finally shut everything down and crawled off
to bed. But the DACport didn't just simply enhance my enjoyment of the
music; it had me reconfiguring my audio setup before the night was
over.

I'm basically more of a big-time, old-school
analog kind of guy, constantly tweaking speaker positions, etc., trying
to achieve that last bit of performance and soundstaging. After a couple
of years, I'd pretty much arrived at what I felt was the correct
position in the room for my Magneplanars and Def Tech subwoofer, which
was about eight feet into the room for the Maggies, less than 12 inches
from the sidewalls—quasi-ribbons inward, with maybe a half an inch of
toe-in. Sub's in the right corner, behind the Mags. This set up
provides a really broad, expansive soundstage, with magnificent imaging
and ambience retrieval—sheer perfection for analogue sources. For
digital, not so good, I found myself further tweaking the set up to the
point where I ended up moving the Mags about a foot further back into
the room, six or so inches further away from the sidewalls, with toe-in
approaching four-to-six inches. Yes, this is a drastic departure from
what I'd previously considered optimal, but it seemed to be the best
overall compromise for day-to-day listening, and offered the best
balance of sound between large-scale orchestral works and more
chamber-oriented and smaller-ensemble works.

Insert the DACport LX. First thing I notice
is the absolutely articulate, pinpoint imaging. My current DAC is the
really good HRT Music Streamer II+, which I still feel offers excellent
playback of FLACs, WAVs and such, and is an amazing improvement over
digital disc playback via most mid-range CD players. But the DACport LX
is on such a completely different level of realism—my brain gears
immediately started turning, and in no time, I'd reconfigured the room
to the optimal analogue positions—and the sound pouring forth from the
speakers was simply glorious! The LX makes my digital playback even more
analogue-like than ever before—at this point, it was about 2 am, and
I'm seriously about to fall out of my chair, but the sounds coming from
the stereo were so very intoxicating! I find my very best listening is
really late at night when your brain is so tired, it just stops trying to
control everything and pretty much suspends your minds' sensation of
disbelief. Sounds become much more palpable and dimensional, and the
music just becomes amazing. It's the kind of scenario I try to achieve
every time I sit in front of the stereo, but don't always enjoy (liberal
portions of various nefarious libations seem to help significantly). But
the DACport LX brings you much, much closer to the music!

Another effect I immediately honed in on was
the really deep, musical and articulate bass being generated with the LX
in the system. My Definitive Technology Powerfield subwoofer is old; at
least fifteen years (or older), and while it's a great performer for
movies and rock music, I'd definitely say it's the weakest link in my
system. When it comes to playback of more acoustic-oriented fare, it can
be a really delicate tightrope to balance the output level of the sub
between divergent musical genres. I generally keep the sub volume knob
placed at about ten o'clock, but with the DACport LX in the system, I've
been able to crank the sub volume upwards of twelve o'clock or so, which
really does wonders for all the rock and full-orchestra classical pieces
in my library! I'm easily getting 4-5 additional dB's of output in the
bass range—it's really rocking my world! I run the Maggies full-range,
and they have plenty of bass for most acoustically oriented music, but
integrating a sub can be a real challenge—especially when the music
contains a lot of bass content that just demands full volume. That's
been the icing on this entire experience; I now get bass that
absolutely plumbs the depths and is even more well-integrated with the Maggies than ever before—it's just a win-win situation! I've been looking
at new subs for over a year now, and while I still might pull eventually
pull the trigger, I'm not in anywhere near the rush!

Audio Nirvana Suffers a Minor Glitch

OK, so obviously I've been cranking the
music much too LOUDLY late at night (note to self: get wife more
earplugs), but with the LX in the system, everything just sounds so
incredibly unforced and natural—the temptation to crank it is just
impossible to resist. Here's where a slight chink in the amour appeared. I began to notice that, in really quiet spaces (especially in jazz and
classical music) and in between songs, I could hear hum in the
background. And this was not only obvious after playback at
ear-splitting levels—even with jazz and more acoustic music at decibel
levels between 60-80 dBs, the hum was still apparent. Switch out the LX
for the HRT unit and the hum goes away, so it definitely was being generated
by the DAC or its associated cabling. After switching interconnects with
my own 1/4 inch phone adapter and Audioquest cables, the hum was still
there. The LX's USB cabling involves a USB mini connector which I
could not duplicate and I thought the USB cable would probably not be the
source of the hum, anyway.

I promptly contacted CEntrance, who had
a new unit sent out that day; unfortunately, when connected to the
system, the new unit also hummed quite loudly. At this point I started
taking a really good, hard look at all the associated equipment in my
room, and within about a week, I finally pinpointed the problem; the DACport LX was picking up RF interference from my ATT wireless internet
gateway. It took about an afternoon to recable and reconnect the gateway
into an adjacent room in my basement, but voila; the hum was thankfully
gone. So while the LX wasn't really generating any hum on its own, it's
definitely somewhat susceptible to RF problems—I've had more than one
person comment that the 1/4 phone jack could possibly be the culprit.
And while the portability of this small wonder is one of the aspects
that CEntrance really seems to be pushing, they might want to consider
an upgrade to the output connectors (or maybe the shielding) for those
who want to keep the unit hard-wired into their audio systems.

Additional Listening

So far, that only bump has been a minor one,
and the couple of weeks of constant burn-in since the DACport LX arrived
have only served to improve its already stellar performance. Like I
said, I've been listening to a lot of music that's been pretty neglected
for quite a while, and it's pretty astonishing how great so much of it
sounds through the LX. And I quickly picked up on a very welcome aspect
of the DACport LX—it appears to be very forgiving of older and less
well-recorded CDs and music sources. It's not a magic bullet by any
stretch of the imagination, but it really seems to have a knack for
smoothing out some of the rough edges on so many of the CDs languishing
in my collection. Just as with less than pristine LPs, there'd alway be
a great, classic phono cartridge out there like the Denon DL160 that was
much kinder to well worn records, and rarely failed to dig deep and pull
a lot of very musical information from those grooves—so the DACport LX
is resurrecting so many of my CDs that seem to need help.

One of my favorite bands from the eighties
and on is XTC and I'm particularly fond of bassist and vocalist Colin Moulding's work with the group. While their LPs tend to sound pretty
great, the CDs, especially the domestic Geffen label variety, tend to
sound less so great. If you have the opportunity to acquire the remastered imports or the MoFi releases, I'd strongly suggest doing so.
Anyway, I've recently picked up several of the domestic releases (at a
dollar each, hard to turn down, even with so-so sound), but after
ripping them all basically just ignored them. What a surprise to me,
then, when I played "Making Plans for Nigel," the opening track on
Drums
and Wires, to find that it rocked every bit as hard as the LP! And with
none of the upper range stridency I'd come to associate with that disc—it sounded nothing short of amazing. I then went for
"The Ballad of
Peter Pumkinhead" from the eclectic Upsy Daisy Collection, which I
mainly bought for the mixture of early hits from LPs I don't currently
own. The tune opens with a raspingly distorted guitar figure that rolls
into a rollicking drum beat and bass vamp that previously had sounded
pretty unlistenable, especially Andy Partridge's vocals about the man
who came to town "spreading goodwill and cash around". The vocals were
always particularly strident on this disc and everything else was just
a mush. Through the DACport LX the sound was urgent and immediate. I've
played this song countless times over the last couple of weeks and it's an
absolute blast; one that really makes you want to get up and move
your feet! The same is true with everything on their classic album
English Settlement, which includes so many great and clever songs, and
they all bring down the heavy beats. A snooze otherwise, but through the
LX.. very magical listening, indeed!

I've always been a big prog-rock fan, so
when the group Asia burst on the scene in 1981, of course, I was there—I mean, gilded from remnants of Yes, King Crimson and ELP, are you
kidding me? I still think their debut album is a
prog-transitioning-to-eighties-pop classic, even though I never followed
the group beyond that first record. The LP has always sounded pretty
good, but the CD has always been thin sounding, with little or no bass
and a relatively congested upper register. Now don't get me wrong—there's no miracle taking place here, but through the LX, the bass is
greatly improved, the overall sound is way less compressed and John
Wetton's vocals are pretty liquid—it just might sound even better than
the LP! At least, I was able to make it through all the tracks I played,
and actually enjoyed them... which is way more than I could ever say for
the CD all these years.

One of the CDs I use to help establish good
speaker positioning is Japanese violinist Mayuko Kamio's Paganini
Caprices, which contains the famous No. 24 that Rachmaninoff's equally
famous "Rhapsody" is based on. The CD (on Sony/BMG) is a really superb
recording, and through the DACport LX, her violin is dead center in the
soundstage, and doesn't sound bloated or abnormally wide, despite the
really wide speaker positioning. I have to tell you, people this is
almost the sonic equivalent of finding the Grail being able to listen
to analogue and digital sources through very finicky speakers, and
having them both project rock solid imaging with correct image width and
depth—talk about an absolute sound! Another similar experience is
through playback of the Anne-Sophie Mutter/Andre Previn disc of
Tchaikovsky and Korngold Violin Concertos; whereas through the HRT Music
Streamer II+, Anne-Sophie's violin seemed to wander somewhat around the
soundstage. Through the LX, she's rock solid and dead center—and this
isn't any kind of monoizing the soundstage, she just sounds exactly
where she should be. I've actually played this disc so loudly (and
cleanly!) through orchestral climaxes, I actually flashed the first row
of clipping indicators on the Emotiva XPA2—first time ever! Did I
happen to mention I need to get more earplugs for the wife?

Another album I play frequently is Natalie
Merchant's excellent Tiger Lily; the opening track, "San Andreas Fault"
just gets me everytime, with Ms. Merchant's cooing, wordless
introduction over electric piano chords that lead to a crashing snare
drumbeat that through the MS II+ distorts every time, such that I
have to be very careful with the volume level to avoid panel slap on the Maggies. Insert the DACport LX into the system and there is no panel
slap at any reasonable volume level (read: anything approaching 12
o'clock). Throught the HRT unit, the panel slaps at just over 9 o'clock—we're probably talking easily about 6 or more dBs in gain, roughly
double the SPLs! And don't get me wrong, it's not all about dBs and SPLs
here, but life is short and I like to enjoy my music at reference
levels. I'm sure Natalie Merchant would approve.

Another great CD that has me feeling like a
teenager again is the Doobie Brothers' 1974 classic What Were Once Vices
are Now Habits, a really great record that through the MS II+ just
sounds dated and run-down. Played through the LX, those delicious
grooves come back to life, the Doobies had perfected
that blend of acoustic/rock/funk that was just irresistible, and hearing
this classic music as such takes me back to my San Francisco/Sausalito
days when this music was all over the place. Even though "Blackwater"
got played to death in the seventies and beyond, hearing it through a
really good system is a revelation—it's absolute ear candy.

Just last night, I started listening to a
trio of classic Clash albums, London Calling into Combat Rock followed
by their great, misunderstood classic Sandinista. You know, it's really
amazing, the Clash were such a volatile act, seemingly only held
together by guitar strings, but jeez, did they make some memorable
music, or what! The interplay between Joe Strummer and Mick Jones is so
alternating raucous and unbelievably delicate at times, it's really
hard to believe they were at each other's throats virtually the whole
time. Via the LX, you get the unvarnished truth—these records deserve
to be in every collection, played often and loudly. This session drifted
into extended time with more heavy hits from the Ramones Mania, a
greatest collection that's always sounded less than stellar. This
particular version is a test CD from a fad that was all over the ‘net
circa 2005 or so. First, you take a CD and convert all the songs to 320
kbps LAME MP3s, then reconvert them to WAVs—supposedly, it resulted in
really good sound for albums that suffered from "digititus". I never
experienced any real benefit, until now. This disc sounds nothing short
of AMAZING via the DACport LX; I think it even betters their vinyl
catalog for overall sound quality. Great songs like "Mama's Boy," "Psycho Therapy" and
"The KKK Took My Baby Away" have never sounded so
good!

And so it goes on and on. At my last
installment here, I was really sleep depraved and it's even gotten worse,
people. When you start getting so used to hearing so much great music,
to quote the Doobies: "You just can't stop it!" And what's really
bonkers is, as great as the DACport LX is at handling imperfect CDs, the
really good ones are off the charts, phenomenally good! Jeez, I'd really
love to hear the $800 "Class A" model if this is what you get for only
$299!

Stereophile "Class C" My Ass!

I've got 50 bucks says JA never once even
considered unhooking the Sennheisers from his DACport and plugging that
puppy into one of those analog big rigs up in Manhattan to let it sing
to the masses for a while! Now I've read from several other reviewers
around the web who've compared the original DACport's sound to the LX,
and they seem to universally agree that removing the amplifier and
controls from the original DACport have improved its audio performance
significantly. I cannot confirm their conclusions, but neither do I
deny them as it makes perfect sense to me. What doesn't make sense is that
a component as in-your-face superb as the DACport only rates a
Stereophile "Class C" rating! I think they should definitely give the LX
a listen to see how it rates strictly on its own merits as a
digital-to-analog converter, especially now that it has a much more
direct circuit path.

In Conclusion

You know, I think I may have just given up
thinking "things just can't get any better than this"; sure they can. It happens all the time. That's not to say that I'm back on the hunt for
the next big improvement. I'll probably just take things as they come in
the same way that this splendid little digital-to-analog converter came to me.
Digital is on the right path, and with companies like CEntrance blazing
the way, that Nirvana we're all looking for is not too far down the
road. If you're looking for a remarkably good-sounding USB DAC at a more
than reasonable price, I'd look no further than the DACport LX. People
are right... this thing's the bomb! Tom Gibbs